Another DIY led...

[gtbarsi]

Thanks for suggestion. It is interesting indeed, but already have the Storm controller at home . I dont really feel that controlling the light from my phone is really worth almost double the price of the storm controller. I can walk couple of steps next to tank and tune the light . Anyway, once the lights will be ready I am planning to start something based on Jarduino system with a nice touch screen. But thats for later - will see how time and budget will allow it.

I have strongly considered the storm and StormX controllers, considered doing a DIY arduino controller, which morphed in to doing a DIY arduino tank controller, and then when I saw the bluefish mini I thought that who needs the touch screen mounted to the lights. You can keep the touch screen in you pocket. The storm controller is a solid solution, no question and using it for now lets you finish the project and have more money for other projects later.

The new picks look awesome! Where did you get the side rails they look like they were designed for this purpose. I cant tell from the picks, is the Coralux board mounted in a T slot or some other way?

 

[dacianb]

perhaps it would be better if the fan runs constantly
fan will be constantly switched on and off
LEDs quickly heated surface and the fan will constantly switched on and off (my opinion, I could be wrong)

The idea of switching fan on / off is not for consumption reasons (anyway consumption of the fan is a bit above 1W) but dust reason. Did you ever opened a computer after 1-2 years of working? Huge amount of dust inside thanks to fans running continuously. Those lights I build in a way to be maintenance free - so as low timing of fan, less dust build over time.

Based on the tests I run until now I can tell you that fan dont turn on if light is at 50-60% and with all channels at 100% runs for 1-2 minutes then is off for 20-30 minutes. I even put the fixture in the window under full sun heat and still everything worked perfect. Tests were made with thermostat at 60°C on / 40°C off. Today I received another model with 50°C ON and 30°C off. Will mount it and retest it.

Reason of switching from 60°C model to the 50°C model is that when you touch the light at 60°C is rather uncomfortable. No danger for LEDs as they can handle 150°C.

 

[dacianb]

I have strongly considered the storm and StormX controllers, considered doing a DIY arduino controller, which morphed in to doing a DIY arduino tank controller, and then when I saw the bluefish mini I thought that who needs the touch screen mounted to the lights. You can keep the touch screen in you pocket. The storm controller is a solid solution, no question and using it for now lets you finish the project and have more money for other projects later.

The new picks look awesome! Where did you get the side rails they look like they were designed for this purpose. I cant tell from the picks, is the Coralux board mounted in a T slot or some other way?

The side rails are actually made for industrial grade enclosures and indeed have lots of channels for boards inside. I know there are coming from Germany, but I get them via a friend of a friend ... I dont know if are available on webshops or for individual customers. But I know the machines made with such profiles and finally get few pieces. The board is mounted with M3 screws using the provided holes, but in the rails are some special slots for M3 nuts (also **** special, not regular M3, but much thinner - I found them on a webshop in Poland) - yes, is not an easy light as looks like.

 

[TJ's Reef]

WOW! Fantastic DIY LED build, thank you so much for sharing. Makes my DIY array look 'Old School' and certainly old tech. Following along to see just how 'COOL' this turns out. May have to up my game to take on this kind of challenge.

Cheers, Todd

 

[gtbarsi]

The side rails are actually made for industrial grade enclosures and indeed have lots of channels for boards inside. I know there are coming from Germany, but I get them via a friend of a friend ... I dont know if are available on webshops or for individual customers. But I know the machines made with such profiles and finally get few pieces. The board is mounted with M3 screws using the provided holes, but in the rails are some special slots for M3 nuts (also **** special, not regular M3, but much thinner - I found them on a webshop in Poland) - yes, is not an easy light as looks like.

If you could share anything such as a manufacturer name or something like that I would really appreciate it.

 

[soubhik]

awsum project dacianb. I am a newbie in this hobby,want to diy my lights too tagging along.
one question though what are the watts of the leds ?
and if you please load the data sheet of the led you are using .
thanks

 

[tabasco122]

Man these look really nice. kinda making me rethink my ebay setup. How much are you in so far?

 

[dacianb]

awsum project dacianb. I am a newbie in this hobby,want to diy my lights too tagging along.
one question though what are the watts of the leds ?
and if you please load the data sheet of the led you are using .
thanks

On first page of this thread i specified the led types. Main leds are 6W but will be used at max 3W for max efficiency. Pure watts on leds is an irrelevant parameter as you can have huge difference as light output for same power. Here is relation between led techology, max and effective current,binning, temperature and list is not ended yet.

 

[dacianb]

Man these look really nice. kinda making me rethink my ebay setup. How much are you in so far?

Thanks. Do you mean costwise? This project started from 'i want good lights on my new tank' and even considered to buy some brand lights but i was dissapointed by lack of details on such expensive lights, details i must know -call me a geek but i really read small letters on datasheets and not believe in marketing blah blah. Right now price is somewhere between ebay lights and good brands,but i am happier than with anything on market. A guy from belgium offered me his brand system for my diy... But still I can lower the costs a lot by just increasing the quantities. Still leds I use are very expensive comparing with common leds market. Same with all parts.
Right now i am doing such lights for some friends too and price go lower already.

 

[Jlentz]

Thanks. Do you mean costwise? This project started from 'i want good lights on my new tank' and even considered to buy some brand lights but i was dissapointed by lack of details on such expensive lights, details i must know -call me a geek but i really read small letters on datasheets and not believe in marketing blah blah. Right now price is somewhere between ebay lights and good brands,but i am happier than with anything on market. A guy from belgium offered me his brand system for my diy... But still I can lower the costs a lot by just increasing the quantities. Still leds I use are very expensive comparing with common leds market. Same with all parts.
Right now i am doing such lights for some friends too and price go lower already.

It sounds like you're set though on suppliers and whatnot, I don't think I could do this for under the cost of a radion each. The pcb alone would be over half the cost is my guess.

 

[soubhik]

sorry dacinab i missed that part.

is this the circuit/ schematic diagram you used ?

 

[dacianb]

Actually is a print screen of the Gerber file used to order the boards. I would not call it schematic, but actual design file, electrical and thermal circuits included

 

[dacianb]

It sounds like you're set though on suppliers and whatnot, I don't think I could do this for under the cost of a radion each. The pcb alone would be over half the cost is my guess.

In Belgium, a Radion XR15w PRO is sold with 499 EU (I dont know the US prices, but probably is in the same range) and this is at 75W ( so 6.65 EU / Watt) .
The light I am building is at 100W (dont forget that I am using 6W LEDs, but actually powered at 50%, in the end quite higher efficiency than 3W leds powered at full) and cost me less than 375 EU ( so less than 3.75 EU/watt).
Lets go a bit further on prices...
- LED board - I paid 25 EU / each on small qty. Going to 50-100 pcs price will drop to 7.5-10 EU (this is Belgium high quality supplier)
- LEDs - 6W Osrams cost around 3EU each in small qties. Going to higher volumes price will drop to around 2EU. Using 3W LEDs instead of 6W price will go to 1-1.25 EU / piece.
- Luxeon UVs (I used 2 pieces/ board) - such LED cost 30 EU each. Using instead the Semileds or other exotic type of leds probably I can buy them with 2-3 EU / piece (so a 10 times drop in price)
- fan - I used Noctua (with 6 years warranty and very silent fan) which cost 20EU. An 92mm fan on eBay?? 3-4 EU each.
- Coralux driver board - I paid 12 USD + shipping into Belgium for each board. Each such board cost me almost 15EU. I have an offer from a local manufacturer of 3 EU / board if I order 50 pcs.

As you can see is not an expensive light even at very low quantities.

 

[dacianb]

In parallel with my module build I am doing a similar type of fixture, but with 400mm length, fan completely integrated into system (not above it as on short version) and 2X led boards - so around 200W power.
This is how light looks like for the moment

 

[soubhik]

dacianb are u using any optics/lens in your leds ?

 

[dacianb]

dacianb are u using any optics/lens in your leds ?

No, I will not using any optics on LEDs and there are few reasons for that.
- I need the lights placed at "water level" and have a good coverage
- I dont want to have hotspots into tank and then just to add T5s to make things a bit more uniform. Not using collimators light distribution is close to a T5.
- actually, due to laws of physics any collimator will lower the total efficiency of a led thanks to Fresnel losses and internal absorption. Such optics take light distributed on a wide area and focus them on a smaller area, but with some losses.

 

[gettaReef]

What would you say is the most comparable led fixture on the market to the final product of the led fixture you are making? Very good job btw

 

[dacianb]

What would you say is the most comparable led fixture on the market to the final product of the led fixture you are making? Very good job btw

I never looked for comparations... I have no idea. I looked initially to some brands (specially on Teszla and Radion) but still I felt that something is missing for such amount of money. And took also a look on other DIY projects. So I tried to change comparing with other fixtures (DIY or brands):
- Never use a LED at full power - this is the reason I used 6W LEDs powered at 50% max. In this way LEDs are more efficient at same current and last longer. On each datasheet of LEDs there is correlation between actual led temperature and max allowed current. Nobody seems to care too much about it.
- Use of fancy colors (red, deep reds, etc) - I used high CRI (>80) whites at 4500 k which gave a stunning, but natural coloration even for red things. Most lights are build with low CRI whites (cheaper actually) and then supplement the spectrum with yellow, red, deep red and so...
- Violet side - I went into expensive Luxeon UV leds comparing with "exotic" no name leds because of the huge real power those leds have, possibility to order any wavelength with 5nm steps between 380 and 430 nm and perfect spectral stability over time. Those leds are the only LEDs I know on market labeled with Class 3 photo biological safety standard - with other words are so powerful that can burn your retina. I believe, based on what I red last months that violet range of spectrum is almost as important for corals as 450nm deep blue. If would be cheaper I would use even more on my lights.
- moving components as fans - went into top quality range too, choosing a fan with 6 years warranty and expected lifetime of 150 000 hours. Fan will work seldom on light - so will last forever.
- controllers - I consider quite useless all those fancy wireless controllers and I went for cheap Storm as is more than enough for my need. I adjust the spectrum and intensity ONCE and then just run it. I can walk few steps once every few weeks to eventual adjust something. I used the extra money for better LEDs :tongue:

 

[Dubravko]

In parallel with my module build I am doing a similar type of fixture, but with 400mm length, fan completely integrated into system (not above it as on short version) and 2X led boards - so around 200W power.
This is how light looks like for the moment

show us a picture of the bottom side
thx

 

[dacianb]

I dont have yet LED boards mounted on the long version, but the final part should look like ...